Bulgaria

Yordan Danchev

Yordan Danchev | Photo: private

"Beyond an old intercity rivalry - Sliven and Yambol in the 19th and 20th centuries" (2016)

In October 2016, twenty-four award winners from EUSTORY competitions met at a History Camp in Georgia. For this occasion they prepared posters about their projects and findings which were displayed in the National History Museum in Tbilisi.

My competition entry was about the rivalry between my hometown Sliven and the neighbouring town Yambol. Back in the Middle Ages the residents of these two cities were not on good terms. Even today, there is a dispute about which city is better – Sliven or Yambol. But in the 19th century intellectuals realized the need for conflict resolution in favour of both cities.

How did you decide on your topic?Sliven is my hometown and participating in the history competition was the best way to learn about its history. I tried to answer the question why conflicts arise between cities by giving an explication based on the rivalry between Sliven and Yambol. We wanted to seek the other side by bridging differences and working on a common cause.

How did you react when you came upon surprising points during your research?I was surprised by the hatred brought towards the population of the neighbouring city. My competition partner and I came across “comic situations” during our research: One of them concerns an article in a Yambol newspaper titled “Mineral water was found 21 km from Yambol”. It is the exact distance between the two cities but Yambol’s journalist did not want to mention Sliven although the source of mineral water is directly in Sliven.